I don't know where I could ask, at first I thought I want to post into Technical Support section, but I think many retro console owners may view this section of the forum.

I got this problem with my megadrive which it simply would not boot games, it only gives black screen after you've insert the cartridge. At first you may thought that the pins were dirty, but the console does work with most of my games. It would not boot this one particular game, and that is Sonic The Hedgehog 3.

I thought that the cartridge's pin might dirty, so I cleaned them with cotton butt with rubbing alcohol, tried it again, it does not work, so maybe the capacitor inside the cartridge had blow, this is normal for the lifetime of the cartridge, but when I open up, everything looks fine. Later on I bought new copy from ebay and the console still can't play the cartridge, this is quite surprising as the cartridge can be considered good condition. When I lock-on with Sonic & Knuckles, it does work!, it boots into Sonic 3 & Knuckles fine, save games were fine as well. The same also happen to my original copy of Sonic 3. The console works with all of my games collection. The only distinction of Sonic 3 and the rest of my collection is the save feature...

Any suggestion would be much appreciated, please don't recommend emulator.

You may already noticed that I'm a Sonic fan...., I may post youtube video in the near future about the problem.

Thanks in advance!

ok... my megadrive knowledge is a bit rusty... let's see...

your sonic3 cartridge issit megadrive or genesis version?

I vaguely recall certain games can't be played on my megadrive also... but that was what? almost 16 years ago?

let's see... save game feature, I remember i can play games like Romance of 3 kingdom, Phantasy Star series, Shining Force series all without problem.

so it could be a string of bad luck for u thou... 2 bad cartridge in a row try to look for another megadrive if see it can boot or not.

Region issues, Sonic 3 has region lock chip while (surprisingly) Sonic 4 didin't have that implemented.

Thank you for your support, the Sonic 3 cartridge are all japanese version similar to my megadrive version. As far as I know, if I plug Genesis Sonic 3, it will at least display a message "Develop for use with NTSC Genesis Systems Only".

It could be a string of bad luck, but I manage to get a third copy of Sonic 3 (I don't think anybody other than me is so crazy to enjoy Sonic on megadrive....), it still didn't work, but I have yet to try those cartridges to different megadrive as all my friend had already throw the system away. In addition, the third cartridge is borrowed from my friend (I think he gave me, because he didn't care anymore) and the cartridge itself has not being used for so long, I cleaned it first before testing though.

I'll try to look for another megadrive in the forum or ebay and see whether those 3 cartridges are broken or not.

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Added on March 23, 2010, 1:16 pmYup, even Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 3D Blast (aka Sonic 3D Flickies Island) released after Sonic 3 are region-free.

This post has been edited by revived_irfan: Mar 23 2010, 01:16 PM

What's the region of your Sega 16-bit system?

it could be a PAL console, as only the American's are calling it Genesis while the rest of the world is known as Mega Drive

It's a japanese megadrive 2. It is exactly like this one shown in Play-Asia: http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-6z-49-en-70-5yy.html

At the box says "For sale and use only in Japan", comes with japanese manual, I'm not sure about the voltage for the adaptor as I'm too primitive to understand 100v and 240v voltage at that time, but I do play it with the original adaptor until it broken about 10 years ago.

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Added on March 23, 2010, 4:34 pmCurrently I planned to buy used megadrive system from this forum to test those 3 cartridges. It's a clone system but I had to test those cartridges somehow....

This post has been edited by revived_irfan: Mar 23 2010, 04:34 PM

how much u spend just for sonic3 already?

Or you could send me the games I test for you

I have Genesis and JP MD

hahahaha, a killer question, when I bought it from ebay, I think it's about RM80 plus shipping. The more expensive is the japanese Sonic & Knuckles cartridge, is costs me RM170. When you love it, you go for it. After more than 10 years I finally be able to own original cartridge of S&K, I always play it using 'ahem' cartridge which does not have the lock-on feature.

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Added on March 23, 2010, 4:55 pmYa, I may do just that, after all I got 3 copy of the game, but see how things workout first, I may be able to get a used system today or tomorrow.

This post has been edited by revived_irfan: Mar 23 2010, 04:55 PM

Hmm... I used to remember "blowing" the cartridges when it doesn't boot. Anyway, not a recommended solution.

This post has been edited by geekster129: Mar 23 2010, 06:12 PM

Just bought a clone megadrive system from this forum, I tested my games on it, and it confirm my worst fear, all 3 Sonic cartridges are not working. I think that answers my doubt about my system. What a "lucky" person I am. Anyway, I'll continue to pursue working cartridges from now on. Thank you for your support in giving suggestions and so on.

This post has been edited by revived_irfan: Mar 24 2010, 11:17 PM